Nathan sat on the bed alone in a room with his lover's past meddling in her inner thoughts. He held Ava's hands, interlocked his fingers with hers and put his other palm on it as if protecting the bond. He released his other hand and took out the magical talisman and put it between Ava and his hands and said, "Let me be with you. If not in the physical world, then perhaps in my imagination." And though Ava couldn't hear it, the magic of the talisman let Ava get into Nathan's thoughts.

Nathan was surrounded by a what smelled like a house of a thousand dead rats.

A creek.

As long as his vision went, so did the runny water and their gushing sound. Foul and abhorrent scents usurped over the locale danced in the atmosphere nearby. His trousers were wet with muddy black water. Everything Nathan could see, he saw through a layer of glass as looking out of the window of car. The weather reflected the war of beauty and ominousness.

But where was Ava? Was all this a vision trick?

Nathan started to somewhat tread against the tempest waves that were adamant on breaking his bones. This didn't seem like an ideal creek—a small pond-like isn't supposed to have terrific waves.

He stammered as long as he could until the point his legs gave up, and he started to crawl—his hands meddling with all the dirt on the ground. The thwart ocean didn't stop to deter him and his nostrils continued to die. As his hands grabbed the ground firmly to not lose themselves to the waves, they picked some garbage up from the filthy floor of the creak. The garbage wasn't something that should be considered as trash—It was actually a hilarious photo of Ava and him. Ava and Nathan's face and hair were covered with butterscotch, whipped cream, and what seemed like colourful sprinkles. Ava was looking at him and laughing, while he was laughing and going towards the cake and putting more whipped cream in her hair. 

Nathan couldn't help but grin. He flipped the photograph. There was one on this side, too. This was of an arcade with Nathan's arms wrapped around Ava. He really liked this photo.

He tried to produce a nostalgic chuckle but he was too engrossed in thinking if this entire creek had photographs on its floor. Nevertheless, one thing was clear: These photographs were a clue that he was getting near wherever this talisman was taking him.

He knew this wasn't how this talisman worked. Whose imagination was he into? How could Ava control his mind if her body alone was here?

This was breaking him up. He cried Ava's name at least thrice till his crawling hands stumbled upon a barrier. He submerged his head into the muddy water and a chill went down his spine as the saw a bed made of glass with Ava sleeping in it. His hands tried to get hold of a corner of the bed but it was moving—not sideways but downwards. This wasn't supposed to be possible. The creek was shallow enough to let Nathan walk over.

He swam to the parts where even sun rays got afraid from penetrating, but Ava was sinking deeper and deeper, getting farer and farer from him.

His eyes shut close. All of a sudden there was blackness all around. Ava was out of his vision just like the ground was out of his touch. And as his body felt light as a feather floating on a pond, his long-dead heart ached in melancholy.

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Thank you so much for reading till here. It really means a lot to me.

Have a day as fresh as a daisy!

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